DVA3703 Assessment exam 2.

To begin with, the concept of policy formulation refers to the process of identifying courses of action, often called alternatives or options, to resolve problems faced by particular organisation orsociety (Anderson, 2003:27). In this case, an organisation could be a business firm/company, government department, ministry or political party. The idea of formulating a policy comes as a result of policy demands or claims for action on a particular issue that are made by other actors. Agenda setting stage refers to the process through which a policy and the problem it is intended to address are acknowledged to be of public interest. For a policy to be placed on the agenda, there seem to be certain prerequisites. Individuals, groups as well as the state must acknowledge that a situation is problematic, identify the problematic aspects of the situation, propose solutions, and engage in activities that influence the government and pressure it to intervene, including identifying groups that can play an active role in addressing the problem Du Plessis & Kotze (2016:45) identifies factors that influence the determination of proposed policy issues to receive attention of policymakers as: Scope or how widespread a problem is. Gerston (1997:33) says “if only a small percentage of the population is worried, then the issue will fail the scope test because of its inability to generate enough attention”. A national policy issue (e.g. the development model a country would follow) is likely to attract lots of attention, whereas localised issues (e.g. street lights in a given neighbourhood) might not; Intensity or the emotional connection to the policy issue. Think of typical emotive issues here, such as abortion, gun control or land redistribution; Duration, or the period that the issue would enjoy sustained interest. In South Africa, the sustained pressure by activists about ARV treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS meant that the issue had currency on the agenda until the rollout of treatment; Resources, particularly the projected costs of addressing the